short-tailed shrew

9.0

A small North American animal with a tail less than half its body length

noun
/ˈʃɔrtˌteɪld ʃru/

: musaraña de cola corta

With a body length of only a few inches, the short-tailed shrew has a tail that is noticeably shorter than its body.

Examples

The short-tailed shrew is often found in gardens, where it hunts insects and small invertebrates.
In North America, the short-tailed shrew plays a crucial role in controlling pest populations.
PHOTO: A short-tailed weasel peers out of a stone wall, a favorite habitat.

Academic text (1991)
Both the long-tailed and the short-tailed weasels change to white winter coats.

Academic text (1991)
PHOTO: A short-tailed weasel moves easily through the narrow tunnel of a dead log.

Academic text (1991)
Photo (color): A female short-tailed weasel bounds through the grass, moving one of her youngsters to a new hiding place.

Academic text (1991)
PHOTO: In Vermont, a female short-tailed weasel in summer coat tears into a ruffed grouse she has killed.

Academic text (1991)

Synonyms

Blarina brevicauda

vsshort-tailed shrew

Specialized

9.9

A small North American shrew with a tail shorter than half its body length

is the common everyday name for the same animal

How Big

mammoth

5 3.9

pachyderm

4 9.4

medium-size

3 2.3

short-tailed shrew

9.0

Surface Forms

short-tailed shrew singular

short-tailed shrews plural

Morphology

short-tailed + shrew

The meaning 'a shrew with a short tail' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'short-tailed' (having a short tail) with 'shrew' (a small pointed-snout mammal). This adjectival + noun composition is a straightforward, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

The name short-tailed shrew gives a clear picture: a small shrew with a short tail. Because its tail is less than half its body, the name means 'a shrew species with a short tail'.